About us
Glo i Natur CIC exists to protect, restore, and enhance biodiversity on former coal spoil sites across the South Wales Valleys. These unique post-industrial landscapes, once shaped by coal, now provide vital habitats for wildlife and opportunities for people to connect with nature.
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Our work focuses on safeguarding threatened species, improving habitats, and ensuring these sites remain accessible green spaces that support the health and well-being of local communities. By combining conservation with education, research, and public engagement, we demonstrate how places once marked by industry can be transformed into areas of hope, learning, and renewal.
We also celebrate the industrial heritage of the Valleys, recognising the deep cultural connections between local people and these former coal mining landscapes. Through our projects, we aim to honour this heritage while building a future where nature and people thrive together.
Why Coal Spoil Sites Matter
For more than a century, the South Wales Valleys were defined by coal mining. The industry shaped communities, fuelled Britain’s Industrial Revolution, and left behind a legacy of spoil tips and derelict colliery sites. Over time, nature has reclaimed and transformed these landscapes. Once barren “eyesores,” they now support a remarkable diversity of life - from birds, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles to plants, fungi, lichens, bryophytes, and invertebrates. In recent years, species new to Wales, the UK, and even to science itself have been discovered here, underlining just how unique and valuable these sites are. Many have become biodiversity hotspots, often richer in species than the surrounding countryside and rich in rare and threatened species.
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Yet despite their importance, coal spoil sites remain gravely misunderstood and under-appreciated. Too often dismissed as derelict wasteland, they are overlooked in conservation planning and given little or no legal protection. Every year, sites of significant ecological, cultural, and historical value are lost to development, reclamation, or neglect - representing an irreplaceable loss for both wildlife and people.
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We are living through a nature and climate crisis. Since the Industrial Revolution, the UK has lost around half of its biodiversity, and today one in six species is at risk of extinction. Coal spoil sites now provide vital refuges for wildlife in the South Wales Valleys, acting as stepping-stones that connect fragmented habitats and enabling species to adapt and move in response to climate change. They also play a role in storing carbon, and offering accessible green spaces that benefit local communities.
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At Glo i Natur CIC, we see these landscapes not as relics of the past but as places of hope - where nature and heritage come together to inspire a greener, healthier, and more resilient future.
Support Our Work
At Glo i Natur CIC, we are dedicated to protecting, restoring, and celebrating the unique biodiversity and heritage of coal spoil sites across South Wales.
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As a community interest company, we operate as a not-for-profit organisation and rely on external funding and donations to deliver our work - safeguarding threatened species and connecting local communities with nature.
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Every contribution, no matter the size, makes a real difference. Every donation directly supports hands-on conservation, research, and community projects that protect the South Wales Valleys’ natural and cultural heritage.
